Outstanding Recent Graduates

Emily Aronis

WICHITA, KAN.

BS 2006 – HEALTH PROMOTION

Workers at some of Wichita’s largest employers are healthier, thanks to the efforts of Emily Aronis. A member of the Health and Wellness Coalition of Wichita, Aronis has worked with employers including Bombardier, IMA, Meritrust Credit Union and Conco to develop their health risk management program strategies.

Now a Benefits Analyst in charge of wellness program implementation at Spirit Aerosystems, Aronis developed running clubs when she worked at Bombardier and IMA to encourage coworkers to become more active.

She returns to Emporia State each fall to take part in Worksite Wellness Program speaker panels, sharing her career journey, experience, and professional advice with current health promotion majors.

Michele Burke

SALEM, ORE.

MLS 2006 – LIBRARY SCIENCE

Michele Burke is Reference Librarian at Chemeketa Community College, Salem, Ore. A frequent guest speaker at Emporia State’s School of Library and Information Management (SLIM) classes in Portland, Burke shares her expertise with information literacy and leadership skills.

She founded the Information Literacy Advisory Group of Oregon (ILAGO), an initiative that works to expand college students’ access to information available in libraries. Her attitude of respect and willingness to listen has made her a major player among Oregon’s academic librarians in their statewide effort to create shared information literacy standards and desire to improve consistency across varied institutions and curricula.

Burke was president of the Oregon Library Association in 2012 – 2013, and was named a Library Journal “Mover and Shaker” in 2012.

Ashton Ludden

KNOXVILLE, TENN.

BFA 2009 – ENGRAVING AND PRINTMAKING, ART HISTORY MINOR

One of two undergraduates to ever receive a 2009 Kansas Arts Commission Emerging Artist Award Fellowship while at Emporia State, Ashton Ludden is completing her Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville.

Ludden has been serving as a Graduate Teaching Associate and the UTK Letterpress Studio Coordinator. While at UTK, Ludden has furthered her curiosity with animal agriculture and has lectured at the 2012 Animal, Ethics and Law Symposium. She completed a five week Artist-in-Residency at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Poland, and received the 2013 Frogman’s Graduate Scholarship Award. Her prints have been exhibited internationally.

Jeremy Rusco

EMPORIA, KAN.

BSB 2006 – BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Emporia is cementing its status as a mecca for alternative sports, particularly with the work that Jeremy Rusco has accomplished in the past few years. Disc golf is said to be one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States, partly because of Rusco’s work to promote it.

Rusco owns Dynamic Discs in Emporia, a premier disc golf retailer that he started as an eBay company in 2005. The business has expanded from an attic to three different basements before settling into retail storefronts in Emporia, Kansas City, and Lewisville, Tex.

He was co-director of the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) Amateur and Junior Disc Golf World Championship tournament that attracted 550 of the world’s best amateur disc golfers to Emporia in July 2013.